Scenario: North America Football League
The North America Football League, created in year 2020 was created in competition to the National Football League. In 2020, people got sick of National Football League commissioner Roger Goodell changing the rules of the league to make the game "safer" so, viewership dropped. Like the United States Football League, the season will be in the spring, with each team playing twenty games, the first game being the first week of March and ending in July with playoffs beginning the last week of July with 12 teams in the league making the playoffs and the last game being called the North America Bowl. The commissioners of this league are former safety of the New England Patriots Rodney Harrison and the former linebacker of the Pittsburgh Steelers James Harrison. Difference between the NAFL and the NFL -Players are allowed to celebrate any plays in the NAFL -Players are allowed to hit anyone anywhere they want with any amount of force that they want, just as long as the hit is "part of the game" -Players are allowed to use their cell phones in the middle of the game, with the team and the coach's permission -If a player wants to join the NAFL, they must sign a waiver that the NAFL or the franchises in the NAFL are not responsable for any damages, physically and mentally to themselves from playing the sport no matter when the damage is noticeable -Kickoffs will be kicked off from the team that's kicking off 30 yard line Other rules that weren't influenced by Goodell include: -No punting, each team must "go for it" on 4th down -Extra points, after touchdowns, for field goals, will be taken from the team that didn't score's 25 yard line -Overtime is "college football style", each team gets a possession and if the score's tied after each team gets a possession, they keep playing until each team had an equal number of possessions and the score's not tied -The Championship Game, the North America Bowl will be held at the team playing with the best record's stadium -With two minutes left to go in the 4th quarter, if a team with the ball loses yardage, the game clock stops -There is no such thing as the "tuck rule" in the NAFL -Trade deadline is the 12 AM Tuesday after Week 12 -There is no injured reserve Teams of the NAFL Eastern Conference Northeast Division -Boston Rebels -Cleveland Thunderbolts -Detroit Cougars -New York Gargantuans -Pittsburgh Scrapmen -Toronto Northmen Southeast Division -Atlanta Vultures -Baltimore Stallions -Carolina Tigers -Miami Sharks -Philadelphia Hawks -Washington Ambassadors Western Conference Northwest Division -Chicago Grizzlies -Denver Mustangs -Milwaukee Boxers -Minnesota Explorers -San Francisco Gold Miners -Seattle Ospreys Southwest Division -Dallas Wranglers -Houston Natives -Los Angeles Pirates -Nashville Rockers -Oklahoma City Cattle -San Antonio Bandits Each team will play each other in their division twice, with each team playing each team in the other division in their conference once with two out of conference matchups. Expansion of the NAFL After the 2020 season, viewership and fans grew in the NAFL because people thought that this new league brought back the "old game" which football fans found more exciting. To boost viewership and fans, the NAFL expanded to 28 teams in year 2021, the four expansion teams being: -New Orleans Crusaders -Indianapolis Barnstormers -Kansas City Pioneers -San Diego Thunder The divisions got realigned to look like this: Northeast Division: -Boston Rebels -Cleveland Thunderbolts -Detroit Cougars -New York Gargantuans -Philadelphia Hawks -Pittsburgh Scrapmen -Toronto Northmen Southeast Division -Atlanta Vultures -Baltimore Stallions -Carolina Tigers -Indianapolis Barnstormers -Miami Sharks -Nashville Rockers -Washington Ambassadors Northwest Division -Chicago Grizzlies -Denver Mustangs -Kansas City Pioneers -Milwaukee Boxers -Minnesota Explorers -San Francisco Gold Miners -Seattle Ospreys Southwest Division -Dallas Wranglers -Houston Natives -Los Angeles Pirates -New Orleans Crusaders -Oklakoma City Cattle -San Antonio Bandits -San Diego Thunder Teams will play each team in their division twice and they will play each team in the division that is not theirs in the same conference once and two teams, one in each division that is not in their conference once, based on their ranking in their division the previous season. After the 2021 season, the NAFL grew in popularity, becoming the fourth most watched sporting league in the United States. The NAFL proved themselves already to be competition enough to draw people away from watching NFL games or going to NFL games. The New England Patriots of the NFL broke their sellout streak in 2021, after almost 20 years of consecutive sellout home games. The average ticket price of an NFL game was at $150 in 2019 but now it's only $60. Tickets for NAFL games skyrocketed to $120 per ticket. To be even more competitive with the NFL, the league expanded to 32 teams, with one team in each media market of the NFL's 2022 expansion teams: -Tampa Bay Privateers -Phoenix Redbirds -Cincinnati Leopards -St. Louis Bulls The 2022 realignment made the NAFL have 32 teams, just like the NFL. Like the NFL, there are two conferences, with eight divsions in the league with four teams per division, the divisions now are: Eastern Conference Atlantic Division -Boston Rebels -New York Gargantuans -Philadelphia Hawks -Toronto Northmen Mid Atlantic Division -Baltimore Stallions -Carolina Tigers -Cincinnati Leopards -Washington Ambassadors Southeast Division -Atlanta Vultures -Miami Sharks -Nashville Rockers -Tampa Bay Privateers Great Lakes Division -Cleveland Thunderbolts -Detroit Cougars -Indianapolis Barnstormers -Pittsburgh Scrapmen Western Conference Midwest Division -Chicago Grizzlies -Milwaukee Boxers -Minnesota Explorers -St. Louis Bulls South Central Division -Dallas Wranglers -Houston Natives -New Orleans Crusaders -San Antonio Bandits Mountain Division -Denver Mustangs -Kansas City Pioneers -Oklahoma City Cattle -Phoenix Redbirds Pacific Division -Los Angeles Pirates -San Diego Thunder -San Francisco Gold Miners -Seattle Ospreys Each team will now play regular season in the traditional NFL format. Teams will play divisional opponents twice with each team playing each team in another division in the same conference once and each team will play each team in every division in the same conference by wherever they finished in divisional ranking once. Each team will play each team in a division in the other conference once. Playoffs will now be in the traditional NHL/NBA format, the top eight teams in each conference will make the playoffs, division winners will get the 1-4 seeds, one being the division winner with the best record and four being vice versa and seeds 5-8 will be teams that didn't win their division with the five seed being the non-division winner with the best record and eight being vice versa. By the year 2025, the NAFL has surpassed the NFL in popularity and is now the United States' most watched sporting league. By now, the NFL is holding on by a straw. Attendance for an NFL game, which 10 years prior used to be on average 65,000 a game is now around 15,000 a game. Viewership went down for NFL games, enough that after year 2022, when their TV contracts ran out with CBS, FOX and NBC. Now, NFL games are only aired on ESPN and the NBC Sports Network, only broadcasting the "game of the week" in each conference. ESPN gets to broadcast AFC games of the week and NBC Sports Network gets to broadcast NFC games of the week.The NAFL, at the beginning of the 2023 season, signed a TV broadcasting contract with FOX and CBS for the rights to broadcast games, worth $8.5 billion a year. Like the NFL, kind of, CBS will most likely air Eastern Conference games, since their headquartered in New York and FOX will most likely air Western Conference games, since their headquartered in Los Angeles. More top college football prospects are now joining the NAFL because of the better contracts, more fans, more freedom to do whatever you want and better locations for teams (a typical college football player would rather play in Los Angeles than Jacksonville). To give more of a "North American" feel to the league, the CFL (Canadian Football League) merged with the NAFL, with the rights of the NAFL to use their teams. Now, for the 2025 season, the NAFL has expanded to 40 teams (7 CFL teams plus one expansion team). 2025 realignment: Eastern Conference Atlantic Division -Baltimore Stallions -Boston Rebels -New York Gargantuans -Philadelphia Hawks -Washington Ambassadors Northeast Division -Cleveland Thunderbolts -Hamilton Tiger-Cats -Montreal Alouettes -Pittsburgh Scrapmen -Toronto Arognauts (changed name from Northmen after CFL merger) Southeast Division -Atlanta Vultures -Carolina Tigers -Miami Sharks -Nashville Rockers -Tampa Bay Privateers Midwest Division -Chicago Grizzlies -Cincinnati Leopards -Detroit Cougars -Indianapolis Barnstormers -Milwaukee Boxers Western Conference Great Plains Division -Kansas City Pioneers -Minnesota Explorers -Oklahoma City Cattle -St. Louis Bulls -Winnipeg Blue Bombers South Central Division -Dallas Wranglers -Houston Natives -Mexico City Aztecs -New Orleans Crusaders -San Antonio Bandits Mountain Division -Calgary Stampeders -Denver Mustangs -Edmonton Eskimos -Phoenix Redbirds -Saskatchewan Roughriders Pacific Division -BC Lions -Los Angeles Pirates -San Diego Lightning (changed name from Thunder, very close to Thunderbolts, name of Cleveland's team) -San Francisco Gold Miners -Seattle Ospreys Each team will play each team in their division twice, each team in one division that is in the same conference once, each team that is in a division that is not in the same conference once and one team in each division based on how they ranked in their division the previous year. Now, 20 teams in the league will make the playoffs. The top six teams in each conference will get a first round bye while teams ranked 7-10 will have to play "entrance games". Entrance games will be 7 against 10 and 8 against 9. Lowest seed plays first seeded team, highest seed plays second seeded team. After that, playoffs go on as normal. Category:Sports Category:Sports Teams Category:American football